After the Saturday swim with the Team, Sunday was a “honey do” day. H also wanted to get out and do a ride – since we have the 100 mile ride coming up on this Saturday. Thank goodness that we decided to go out and ride at 5:00 p.m. – because unbeknownst to us, the Marin Marathon was running where we had decided to bike!

We did an hour and a half bike – from home, around China Camp (that’s where the Marin Marathon was), down past the Civic Center, and back. H got out WAY in front of me when we did the first half of the ride – it was a little windy, but more, I am discovering that it just takes me a while to get “in the groove.” He can get on the bike and get going and really pump it out right away – I take like an hour to get going! This happens to us a lot actually – sometimes we walk out the back of our property and over the hill to Peet’s in San Anselmo for coffee – he can climb the darned hill and be waiting at the top for me without breathing hard, and I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack after 10 steps. But I outlast him!

On the way back on the China Camp “loop” I was ready to pump it, and so I kept right on his tail. It was windy, so he was kind enough to ride in front. When we finished, he was really tired – and in fact, after we had dinner, he looked at me a little grumpily (is that a word?) and said “I bet you’re not even SORE, are you?” It hadn’t even occurred to me that I COULD be sore! So yeah, okay, that made me feel a little better about my pacing.

Monday was an Off day, Tuesday was Swim and Spin (which I always do back to back as a “brick” at the gym), and today (Wednesday) was an hour Run. I texted my neighbor Alex – I love her to death but we never get to see one another – and caught her just at the right time. So she came out running with me. I definitely run slower that she does, but she was willing to run at my pace (we brought her dog, Bailey, too, so he could get some exercise). It was good because we caught up and chatted as we ran down from our houses to the Dominican area and back. 4.75 miles – we actually went just under an hour.

So that’s the quick update! It’s been raining again – in fact, Alex and I got caught in a definite downpour near the beginning of our run – crazy weather!

Missy in the Marathon

This was Missy’s longer post on the Country Music Marathon that she “completed” (see the writeup for why that comes with “bunny ears”) on Saturday. 22-Mile Marathon or not, she’s a rock star!

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Yes, it has taken me 48+ hours to send out any news regarding the marathon weekend.  Here it is.

m.

Missy in the Marathon

So, first, Missy’s update from doing the Country Music Marathon. Missy is my “Tennessee Teammate” – she found me via my blog, and we have been “training together” ever since. The best part was that I asked my IronTeam members to send her good luck emails for her race, and a bunch did. It meant a lot to her!

The marathon was supposed to be serious thunderstorms, gusting winds, etc. Not so fun! It was her 4th marathon, though she really styles herself more as a cyclist. (Ironman Louisville will be her first Ironman.)

This was her quickie report via email on the day (full report, next post):

They diverted the race at 22 miles. Bummer! I was on track for a slightly sub 5:00. That would have been my fastest of the 4. Drats!!!! We had tornado warnings, rain and lightning. The volunteers stuck it out and remained on the course. Amazing!!!!! 30,000+ runners is a bunch of folks to have out in a storm. The police kept telling us to take cover but most just kept plugging along. Oddly enough, I’m satisfied with the experience. I would have liked to finish the full 26.2 but it was a good training day, a memorable experience and I learned a heap about my nutrition, my limits and my post run recovery. Can’t really complain. Now if I had traveled a long way or it had been my first one I’d have been pretty disappointed.

Hope you’ve had a good training day with your swim!!!

Coach Mike Kyle and Mentor Margaret

I am not sure I can imagine sticking it out in weather like that – with that many people, to boot! BIG kudos to the volunteers, police, etc. who helped out at the Country Music Marathon through all that. Whoot Whoot!

So now for the “California” update. This week, I did the Swim Marker, and also the Run Marker. I wrote about the Swim Marker – for the Run Marker, I planned out a 6.2 mile route from Mom’s house, which was pretty funny. I had to do it in “pieces” on MapMyRide.com, because I don’t have a Garmin – and as I was supposed to keep on the flats, that entailed a bunch of out-and-backs! So I ran from her house (in Tiburon, on the bike path at Del Mar) to Blackie’s Pasture, from Blackie’s to San Rafael Avenue, from San Rafael Avenue back to Mom’s, from Mom’s to the end of West Shore Road, then back to Mom’s! It took me an hour and 12 minutes, which was good enough to up me one more VDOT. I’m slowly progressing – since the beginning, I am now 4 VDOT numbers “higher” which isn’t great, but isn’t bad, either. I think the best part is that I am really liking the running part, and except for a little tightness, I seem to have licked the shin splint problem (phew!). I was bothered by being “itchy” during the run – I have been nursing poison oak on my bum and calf, from a “pitstop” during last Sunday’s ride – for the second time this year. Another “You Know You’re Iron When” issue, I guess!

IronMel in her new monkey hat and new swimsuit!

So, back to Saturday. At about 8:00 a.m., IronMel and I arrived at Aquatic Park and slowly got our buns down to the water – just as Sedonia and BK were coming out! Apparently BK had an LLS Board meeting and so had to be in early, so Sedonia agreed to swim with him. Sedonia and BK you are SO IRON!

Today, we swam around the perimeter of Aquatic Park, and were to do as many times as we could in an hour. (Last time we swam around the buoys in the middle, which are fairly close to shore.) I had unfortunately had a rough night without a lot of sleep, and so I decided I would do as much as I could, but I wasn’t going to stress it.

The water was SOOOOO cold! I think it was colder than last time we swam in the Bay. It took me all the way from the shore to the first turn-around buoy to get my face in the water. Brrrr! Luckily though this time no trouble with my swim caps – Maria M-Dot reminded me to “pull them on tight” because of my experience last time. I was definitely NOT going to have a repeat performance!

Kristie in the Kayak

I did have some trouble with my goggles though (if it’s not one thing, it’s the other). I think – amazingly – that my goggles that have fit SO well all season are starting to “gap” a little because I have lost 22 pounds – and my “chubby cheeks” aren’t closing the bottom any more! I had to fiddle with them a few times, and need to figure out if it was “just the day” or if (sadly) I have to find ANOTHER style of goggles. This “goggle thing” is getting a little ridiculous. I thought I had that one licked!

I also “graduated” to Coach Mike’s slimmer wetsuit! He had to give me a “boost” into it (my “badunka” is still a little on the bootylicious side) but once “she” was in, the rest was fine. I was amazed because I looked at that suit and was pretty suspicious that there was NO way it would work. Surprise! Everyone took turns

getting ready to brave the water!

sticking their fingers into the hole in the small of my back – yes okay I got it, there is a hole… Stop that! It tickles! ;-) I also had gone to my friend’s salon Peace, Love & Grilled Cheeses to let them practice their new spray-tan on me (totally natural, uses a combo from sugar beets/sugar that develops naturally) - so there were a lot of comments about how tan I was. I didn’t even try to pass it off as real – though it sure LOOKS real and great! I love it. ;-)

Once I finally got my face in the water I was taking it easy, and was swimming with Patricia and Jen Jay. Then I saw Dana‘s red cap behind me, so I swam back, and decided to keep her company. When swimming the perimeter, it just seems to me it’s safer to be at least in pairs. We had 2 kayaks in the water, but there are boats you are swimming behind, etc. I did have to smile that Dana was there in her full-sleeve wetsuit, insulated cap, mittens and booties – and I was in a no-sleeved wetsuit that came about mid-calf! We had a good time swimming together, practicing siting, and the rest. At one point when we were nearly done (about the 45-50 minute mark, when Maria had joined us in “braving the current” that was getting stronger) I was starting to get really cold, so I had to swim a little faster and would go out and

Dana, Patricia and Jen Jay (front line)

then back, keeping an eye out for her to be sure she was still OK, swim out, back, check, out, back… I felt a little like Jake (my border collie) and how he runs out and back and around and back, sort of “burning off steam” when we’re at the beach. I am pretty sure, though, he’s not trying to keep from freezing up! :-)

Dana "suiting up"

Once we got out, I had the standard bay sludge all over my face (why is it always only ME that gets this? Thanks Coach Helen for giving me the “wipe your face” sign!). I couldn’t actually feel my hands and arms enough to wipe it off with a towel. I just took my (white!) sweatshirt and smudged it all over my face to clear the gunk. Icky. It took a while to be able to talk – getting out of the Bay feels a bit like novocaine. Your brain seems to be working fine, but it’s hard to make the mouth form the right sounds.

We had a Stretch and Strength session on the grass, but I had been so cold I actually couldn’t even get my shirt on. So I just zipped up my long hooded swim parka over my swimsuit and pulled on my sweats, and exercised in that. What a sight, as you can see from the pictures below. I also couldn’t get my hands to hold a brush, so I had very SPECIAL hair. Oh lord. Now I remember why it is that I need to BRAID it, not just “pony-tail” it, when swimming is on the schedule! (Thank goodness the photos were taken when my hat was on – in all the “Downward Dogs” we were doing, it kept flopping off and showing my “bird’s nest” coiffure!)

Jim modelling the Spirit Cape

Susie (who is a fire fighter) had gotten the Spirit Cape last week. Her additions to it were spectacular, including a handcrafted green and purple lei, and an actual fire axe and belt! She explained that fire fighters paint their axes with their engine company name and number and color. So she had painted the axe in IronTeam purple, with “IronTeam” on one side, and “2010″ on the other. It was THE BEST! Jim won the Spirit Cape, and no one could deserve it more. He is always such a great, sunny, “Atta Girl” teammate. (Jim’s the one who paid our way through the toll gate the first Boot Camp weekend, if you remember reading about that. He, and BK, were also the cyclists that scared the heck out of me my first “team ride” around Paradise Drive, because I’d never actually met “real cyclists” before. They got to the route turnaround in Tiburon like 1/2 hour before I even showed up – and had ridden from San Francisco at the beginning, to boot!) Anyway – so here is the photo of Jim with the Spirit Cape – now decked out with the tiara from Tiffany, my boa on the bottom, all sorts of trinkets, the axe and belt – boxing gloves (not sure if Susie had added them or if BK added them when he got the cape the time before because I missed that one, at Wildflower Weekend)…This Spirit Cape is getting to be quite the work of art!

ParkaCize!!!!

After the Stretch and Strength/Spirit Cape with the Team and a big “GO TEAM, IRONTEAM” circle that surprised all the folks who had gathered to watch our craziness (yeah, we do look a little insane, I gotta admit, especially to tourists on the waterfront!), Melissa and I were off to Sports Basement. I needed to get some new nutrition and a few things for Marin friends who love that I make the “trek” in frequently enough that they can give me their Sports Basement shopping lists! Mel scoped while I shopped - she was going to do the 5K Fun Run the next day for Brenda Donato (an IronTeam member who succumbed to cancer a year or two ago) – which included a 20% off Sports Basement spree. I had to be home to do “honey do” chores and then a bike ride with H instead, so “Shopping R Us”.

Oh Yeah. So Sex-say. Bay-bee.

All in all, I felt super good during the swim, and even the strength (though I kept falling because I was slipping on the grass and couldn’t really feel my feet). Mentor Margaret even mentioned how “far I had come.” She always makes me feel like a rock star. She’s the best. The interesting thing that I mentioned to Melissa as we were driving home was that Sue Bird, my hypnotherapist (who did 3 knockdown amazingly great hypnosis induction podcasts a while back – you can download them free HERE, click on “Download” and then wait a bit), had “worked on me” with respect to my Open Water swimming. I realized that while in the water. Basically, Sue does “energy work” as part of her hypnosis practice. Through this, she actually “reads” your energy, and helps “shift” it to more “productive” energy for whatever you are concerned about. I started seeing Sue back when I was in law school, because I had a paralyzing fear of speaking in public. We became fast friends (and in fact, she was the officiant at our wedding). Sue herself is an amazing swimmer, and I believe still holds some of Stanford’s records from when she was there.

Mentor Margaret doing her version of the side plank

I had mentioned to her a while back that ever since I was a small kid (and saw someone die in the water in Ft. Lauderdale of a heart attack) – and especially after seeing the movie Jaws when pretty young too – I have had a fear of swimming in Open Water. Sure, I’ve done it – nearly all triathlons are in Open Water, and “back in the day” I was doing some form of a triathlon a number of times a year…but I have never, ever, gotten over the Fear Factor of it. She asked if I would like her to “work on it” for me and I thought – why not? (She does it from a distance, you don’t even have to be there.)

Well, I had forgotten all about this, though the last time I was at Aquatic Park, I had felt pretty great, and really didn’t think that much about The Dreaded Swim. (That was about a week after Sue and I had had our talk, which was precipitated by my having a rough time at our first Boot Camp in the lake, where Mentor Margaret had to swim and talk with me the whole way.) THIS time, I felt AMAZING. I am not kidding. I felt like an otter in the water. I was REALLY relaxed, having fun, etc., even when we were in the ‘deep water’ part of the Park, where the breakwater is open and lets out into the Bay. It was when I was doing the “border collie-esque” swimming forward and back, treading water, talking to Kristie in the kayak, teasing with Sedonia, etc. that I suddenly realized “Heeeeeey, WHO IS this OtterGirl?!” Of course, Sue lives down in Monterey – where otters are abundant, etc. Maybe she “sent me” some of their energy to “replace” mine…?

ParkaStretch!

I actually texted her, just saying “Whatever you did, it worked.” Wild. Completely and totally wild. The last time something like this happened to me was in Peru, where I was having issue after issue with my debilitating fear of heights. The shaman who had come to Willka Ti’ka (where we were staying) explained in Quechua (their native language) to our translator (who spoke Quechua, Spanish and English) that “all I had to do” was to “give up the fear” to Pachamama (the Earth Goddess) and “she would take care of it,” but I really had to want it gone, and really had to do it in a specific ceremony. Well, long story short – I did, and she did. I wound up bounding up trails that would have set me into a hyperventilating swoon previously – and even now, I am more just “aware” of heights than really afraid of them. I think there’s definitely “something to all that.”

I ended the day by seeing my friend Faye, who is now General Manager at Martha Graham Dance Company. They were in Santa Rosa for one performance on their world tour. They are doing a Retrospective of Martha Graham’s work, and I have to say, it was probably the best dance-related performance I have ever seen. They had some films of Martha Graham herself, did a couple of performances of where “dance had been” before she started doing HER stuff, had a “narrator” who explained a bit about what we would be seeing before the dancers came on…and then of course they performed some of her “greats” including Lamentations, Appalachian Spring, and the rest. H hadn’t known that Copland’s

Patricia looking very Zen in her ab workout

“Appalachian Spring” was written FOR Martha Graham and in accordance with her letters about what she “wanted” in a dance sequence, which the narrator talked about, even reading from her letters to Copland. Before the performance, Willi’s Wine Bar squeezed Faye, H and me in for dinner, where of course we got a few of their fabulous flights of wine, and ate WAY too much of all the things that I don’t make at home! (bone marrow, rabbit rillettes, foie gras, duck, curried crab pot de creme, chocolate chip bread pudding, cheese tray, dessert wines, etc.). So stem to stern, it was a wonderful day!

As I write this, H and I are preparing to do a bike ride, probably down to Sausalito and back. (After napping off the dinner/wine/late night until noon!) I didn’t do the “Athlete’s Choice hour and a half” workout on Friday (my “Athlete’s Choice” was a snooze!), and so H and I are going to go do that. It’s a gorgeous day, as it was yesterday.

Go Team! IronTeam!

Needed a little inspiration today – here are some of my favorites:

This was the email from Sedonia about the Swim Marker I did yesterday – I feel better now :-) – for some reason I can’t get the “titles” to go on or the columns to space correctly, but so it goes. The columns are: Marker, Distance, Time, Min (not sure what the difference is there), predicted minutes for Ironman, predicted time for Ironman, 100 Distance, and then (last two) the difference in the “split” between the first 1000 and the second:

Hey Rock Star!

Let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything that you feel I can do to help you reach your goals!

Was out today to do a 2,000 swim marker – finished it in 42:18. I actually checked my watch when I was at my 1,000 and it was 21:14 – so I am pretty solid at that time. Teensy negative split.

This means I’m actually slowing down. Grrr! And the funny part was that I thought I was totally “powering through” the marker. Once again, I was time-strapped, and HAD to get out before a certain time, as I had a meeting that I needed to get to. I had done the 1,000s during the “3×3 mini-triathlons” the other weekend at about 24 minutes (give or take), and I knew I had to beat that (or be late for my meeting). I thought that shouldn’t be that tough, since I had done those swims with the knowledge I was going to be biking/running (and repeating) afterwards. However, today, once I “did the math” and went back and looked at my previous times, I was a lot slower. I’m back to marker times like back in November/December! Grrrr!

I’m shocked, frankly. I really did feel like I was powering through the set, and that I was going to be WAY faster than my last marker. Instead, my 100 times have been: 2:08 (200 back in November), 2:14 (800 in December), 2:02 (1,000 in January), 2:04 (1500 in January), 2:01 (1000 in February). 2:10 (2000 in March). My 1/2 Iron was 2250 meters in 54 minutes (not sure how to compare that since I think my current pool is yards).

The email from Sedonia last time (when I slowed from 2:01 to 2:10) was this:

Considering where we are in the season, the magnitude of last weekend’s workouts and the fact that this marker is 1000 yards longer than your last marker I am pleased with these results.
 
We are getting to the point in the season where getting faster is not the primary goal, but rather being able to go the distance while maintaining a strong, steady and controlled pace is. 
 
You negative split your swim perfectly and this is a result of the solid base you have established and it is a testament to all the hard work you’ve put forth. 
 
As the season continues to progress improvements in time tend to slow (and most people actually get a little slower) due to the increased work load and those “sluggish” days seem to occur more frequently.  The key is to keep your eye on the prize, remember why your doing this and celebrate the little things!

Time to “celebrate the little things”!

Saturday H and I got up to Yountville to ride the Tour of Napa Valley route with a good portion of the IronPeeps. I hadn’t seen folks in what seemed like forever! (Pre-Half Iron/Sedona.) That day, there were a handful who went down to Monterey for a ride, another chunk were in the East Bay doing the Tierra Bella, and then about a dozen of us for the Tour of Napa route.

H rode on my old bike, Vlad, which he had “souped up” as much as one can on a 20+ year old bike! He had replaced the handlebar, stem, brakes, derailleur, chain…like I said, as much as he could. I was on my new bike, Angelina, for the first “spin” after having her fit at Aria Velo. I was a little concerned about getting “up onto” my seat, which now seemed pretty much at stratospheric levels! (Sure enough, until I got the “hang” of it, the bike shorts pad kept catching. Not so comfy.)

Here is the map of our route (pretty much). If you look at this map, we cut off the “bottom left” part (going out through Larkmead to Calistoga and back on Highway 128 to Highway 29/St Helena Highway ), just cutting down to Silverado Trail and back into Yountville, instead. It was somewhere between 50 and 60 miles.

H and I rode together most of the time, until we got to Ink Grade (between Mile 51 and 55 or so – 4.5 miles and 1110 feet of climbing). Teammate Will had told me that one of the things I would really notice with Angelina was the “power differential” of her geometry over Vlad’s, but I had sucked on my first ride on her with H (pre-bike fit, mind you) and I just thought that was one of those “cycling dude myths.” Well, post-bike fit…I TOTALLY got it. As we were going up Ink Grade, H (who has always been far stronger than me cycling) hit the first of the 12% portions and just said “I have to walk – keep going.” I did…and slowly, inexorably, I got up Damn Ink Grade. I was shocked. Seriously. I passed Patricia and JP on the way up – just going, going, going. Every time I pedaled, it actually moved the bike forward. Now, that sounds stupid. And it’s hard to explain if you don’t know what I’m talking about. But with Vlad, the “power transfer” was such that even though I pushed down, it didn’t push the bike “forward” as far, and I had trouble balancing, so that in the end, I would have to just walk. I was astonished. I got up to the top of that bad boy, and didn’t walk AT ALL. I realized at that point that though I’m not sure I could do Pig Farm or Wilson Hill, I am pretty sure I could take McEvoy Ranch Hill (Red Hill) grade now. Who-hoo! Wow! (OK, and my heart rate maxed at 185 – where my Lactate Threshold is 161. That’s Some Hill.)

I stopped at the top of Ink Grade to wait for H, and he was actually pretty close behind me. (I was a little bummed – I wanted to rest a bit!) We did stop to swap some nutrition out of our Bento Boxes, etc., and H securely stowed Liz’s glove, which we had picked up right at the beginning of the climb. (I nearly killed myself turning onto Ink Grade trying to shift and turn left – I wound up on the grass verge and muscled the bike back onto the road, with Coach Mike laughing in his Mini at me. Of course I would pull a bonehead “shift the wrong way” moment with an audience!) H and I talked a lot about the difference between the bikes, as well as how much of a help the clipless pedals were and that I was beginning to like them…even though I’d nearly bitten the dirt when getting Liz’s glove…I’d unclipped one foot and started to reach down on that side, and the bike is so light it pretty much twisted away from me and I had to do a little “hop” with the BIKE attached to my FOOT to stay upright – too freakin’ funny.

On the other side of Ink Grade – oh my Lord – was the most glorious downhill EVER. The day was perfect and gorgeous, first of all. But there you are – at the top of Howell Mountain – with all of Napa spread out under you. And the road was perfectly paved – not a rut or pothole – and wonderful loopy curves down, down, down. Patricia, H and I sped down and I got to 38 MPH – Patricia reached 40! Woah! There were many “Look, Patricia!” moments – with the glorious California poppies, new olive shoots on the trees, stark black lines of grape trellises up steep slopes, and the like. I was sad that we had forgotten our camera. My favorite was actually a weed field next to the road, in which a full-on tennis net was strung up between two green tennis uprights, left from God knows when! I think H and I might have to drive back just to take a picture of it, it was so incongruous! As H said, “Now THAT adds new meaning to the words ‘grass court’!”

A cute little "bike tattoo"!

Iron Mel had come with us in the car. She’d been sick for quite some time with a bug that just wouldn’t let go, and this was her first outing. The three of us got into a gigglefest on the way into Yountville – don’t even ask. She blew past us on the first uphill of the day on Pope Valley Road – but ran out of gas after Ink Grade. On the way home, the 3 of us hit a deli because H was at his low-blood-sugar worst, and then had to wait about a year to receive our sandwiches (the deli staff kept taking what were obviously locals’ requests first). Skip and Nancy were there too (Skip did his own ride – Nancy SAG’d for us) – at one point, Skip asked Melissa if we had put in our order the previous week too, and we said indeed that we had!

Kudos to Coach Mike and Nancy for their SAG wagons – and especially to Mary and Marina for helping me corral H back in, when he got lost and did another 8 miles down Silverado Trail at the end of the ride! (I had ridden ahead with JP and thought H would ride with Patricia – they both missed the Yountville Road turnoff back, but when Patricia showed up without H, I realized something was not right. Luckily he had his phone turned on – I called from Mary’s phone and discovered he was just continuing to tool on down Silverado Trail! Marina headed off to see if she could find him, and as she left I realized I didn’t have Marina’s number, I wasn’t really sure she knew what H looked like, etc.! So Mary loaned me her car( H had our car keys!) – and as I pulled up to H way down Silverado Trail, Marina pulled up, laughing, behind us. She had realized the same thing – once down the road on her Good Samaritan Mission!)

H and I got back home after the ride and took hot showers, then bad me, I snuggled into bed (it was only like 3:00 PM!) for a little “snoozle.” H woke me up with a tray of treats he had brought back from Austria – champagne, cheese, chocolate, and the like! This was particularly bad, because of course I was going to be out riding again the next day! I am not sure that’s the ultimate recovery nutrition. (Added to the Pringles, Chips Ahoy, and Oreos at the end of the ride!)

Sunday, Iron Mel and I were off again – lather, rinse, repeat – this time to do the bike portion of the Vineman course. She is doing the Vineman for her Ironman, and navigated us to Windsor High. We were doing the whole course – though when she does it during the Ironman, she has to do the loop TWICE! (I hadn’t realized that.) After a pitstop at McDonald’s with 3 of the other girls (during which Coach Dave wound up having to wait in line longer than all 4 of us girls - the irony!), we were off.

I rode for a while with Patricia, Erin, Mary and Maria, and then for most of Westside Road and Dry Creek Road, I was by myself. It was once again a GLORIOUS day. Wow! I passed what seemed like 100s of wineries, many of them with balloons out and announcing tastings, art showings, and the like. I tried to keep my cadence up as Coach Sedonia had cautioned, to make it an “active recovery” day. I rode for a while with Melissa, Marina and Kathryn on Canyon Road, but then was on my own again for Hwy 128.

That's me, in front. What a beautiful day!

The directions we had were pretty good, but after going a number of miles on 128, I hit a stop sign (at about Mile 41 of the ride – around Jimtown). The signs to keep on 128 headed Left, but that didn’t seem correct. It also said that was towards Calistoga, and I wasn’t sure that was the right direction, either. I got a wave of uneasiness over me that I had somehow missed a turn – and the last turn had been MANY miles back. Just as I was getting out my phone to call Coach Mike, Teammate Sara pulled up. I was so glad to see her! She said she was sure we were in the right place, but agreed that a left turn didn’t seem correct. Coach Mike didn’t pick up, and I tried Mentor Margaret just as Sara connected with her boyfriend Gabe (who was in a SAG wagon). (I felt bad – once I got back, Margaret said she had been worried because she saw a missed call from me – whoops!) Gabe immediately knew where we had gotten ”confused” (even before Sara asked him) and he said that yes, we had to go left at the stopsign, because the road actually turned back on itself and ultimately led to where he was in the SAG Wagon (at mile 45/beginning of Chalk Hill Road).

So Sara and I rode together, meeting up with him and Coach Mike at the stop. Now, Sara is a GREAT cyclist. The road between 40 and 45 wasn’t so bad – a few small rollers, but not much. So I decided to keep up with her. We talked about her impending “plunge” into law school in Colorado, the fact she had once again had trouble with a wheel (that’s why she was riding so “slowly” and had come up behind me), etc. After fueling up at the SAG Wagon, I decided that as it was “only” about 17 miles more (still sounds so funny to say that), and that I didn’t have a run afterwards, I would “ride until I bonked” and endeavor to keep up with her.

Whew! Every time I would think I couldn’t keep up and would gear down to an easier gear, Sara would pull away, so I would “Iron Up” and throw it back into the higher gear to keep pace. Of course, I was drafting – even though Sara is little, there is no question that this helps. We did hit a climb before the “big climb” at Chalk Hill, and I definitely fell behind as she hammered up it. She said she’d wait for me at the top – which she did.

We hit Chalk Hill at Mile 47-49. It’s not really that bad of a hill – the problem is that you have already been riding for so long when you hit it. (And the Vineman crew are going to hit it not once, but twice!) Just as we started climbing, Sara lost her chain. I realized there was no way I could get back going if I stopped, so she said no worries, to wait for her at the top. As I turned around to say OK, she did a “slow-mo” fall. I shouted “You OK?” and she was laughing, so I kept going.

We had been riding with 3 other gals (not IronTeam) for part of the way, and the first of them caught up to me as I was near the top. She had heard/seen what had happened, so first joked, “Nice way to leave your buddy back there,” then (laughing) she said, “You have to tell her that’s the most graceful fall I have EVER seen.” When Sara caught up, turns out she had just had one of those standard “not quite unclipping fast enough” situations. I told her I was so surprised to see her on the ground when I turned around, it looked almost as if she just decided to take a little nap there on the road!

I'm sitting behind Sara, in the middle, with sunglasses

I kept up with her all the way in to Windsor High, and was SUPER proud of myself. There is no way in the world that I thought that I could actually do that. I thought I would get maybe 5 miles in, and then just bonk. Her cadence is so high and strong. I felt ELATED as I saw the High School pull into sight – and I know that the “good bikers” who were already in (Coach Dave, Mentor Margaret, Will, Rocky, and the rest) were probably as surprised as I was to see me coming in with her!

As we waited for the rest of the pack to come in, Will had brought his tools/oil/etc. and worked on Angelina. He commented about how great she looked & what a good bike she was (which made me feel good). Ultimately everyone rolled on in – Melissa, Marina and Kathryn as a pack, Sedonia, Patricia, Maria, and Mary, and then Liz (who had actually had some sort of really weird wheel issue that Phil was helping her with, when I saw her on the road). I was all in exhausted (but happy and proud!), and just lay down on the sidewalk while we were waiting for our peeps to get in! It actually felt nice and warm on my back.

Iron Mel and I got ourselves on back to Marin, spending the drive planning our “first dinners” (of at LEAST two) when we got home! I opted for a miso soup and yogurt/fruit smoothie, in my ice bath! My inner thigh muscles all the way from groin to knee (adductor) muscles cramped up a bit on the drive home (and are actually still sore today). That has to be from the new bike fit. Otherwise, I was pleased that on the 2nd day, by and large, I didn’t have all that bad of a time – a little “chacha” discomfort, but not as much as I had imagined. (I was Butt’r'in’ up like a crazy person though, which I think was part of the serious problems I had in the 70.3.) The nutrition plan seemed to work – “GU Brew” with CarboPro, GU, Thermalytes, and Clif Shot Blocks. No fiber, no protein. I still have to see if that’s going to work with a bike and run combo, but I felt OK and didn’t seem to have that much G.I. distress. Once I got out of the ice bath, I started eating everything in sight…! Oh Lord, it was really bad. This morning in fact I was 2 lbs heavier – and I know it was all the crap I ate as if I was a starving person (leftover Oreos and chocolate, etc.) Yowzah!

I’m sure there is more to write, and I will annotate this later – just wanted to get the “broad strokes” down. Today is the Blessed Monday Day Off – whohoo! And it’s a recovery week – even better!

You Know You’re Iron When…

…You breathe a sigh of relief that your FIRST of two long rides back to back is “only” a metric century, not a full century!
…Salt & Vinegar Pringles, Chips Ahoy, and Oreos become “must have” Recovery Items.
…Your feet and upper thighs are the same shade of WHITE (courtesy of Maria M-Dot)
…Your bike mantra (JUST…KEEP…PEDALLING!) wakes you up out of a sound sleep at 2 a.m. Monday morning, and you sneak a peek at your husband to be sure you didn’t shout it out loud…(true, so true…)

Writing this a bit longer than a week after – trying to catch up!

As H was gone at his mother’s funeral in Austria for a little over a week, I was not sleeping well and therefore a bit of a basket case when last weekend’s “Boot Camp” came a-callin’.  As previously posted, I also had been told by my doctor not to run or bike – because she was afraid I would “get competitive” and strain my just-healing shin splint…so after Patricia and Iron Mel called in sick, I just stayed home Saturday. And pretty much did nothing. Bad grrl.

Sunday, however, I decided it was time to Pull On My Big Grrl Panties and get with the program again. After hearing that my teammates had done “as many sprint triathlons as they could do in 5 hours” (including having the air let out of their tires while in the water, etc. etc.) I decided to do my own “5 hours of sprint triathlons” at the JCC.

WOW, was the gym busy! It was a “kids day” in the basketball court, but as I walked in, it looked as if every machine was full as well. It was going to be a tough one trying to get in the groove, but I headed into the Ladies’ to “suit up.”

Just driving to the gym had been an adventure, too. There were high wind warnings, and severe flood/rain warnings as well. The rain was pelting down, and of course I had to park in the “secondary” lot (which should have clued me in on how full the gym was going to be). I got myself together before opening the car door – with my gym bag, bike/run shoes, etc. in one hand, and 5 hours’ worth of nutrition to try in the other! I opened the door into the sheets of rain, pulled the hood up on my raincoat, fumbled for the car lock button, and raced for the front door!

I set up the locker so that it could work as a transition area for me – run clothes on the bottom “layer,” then bike clothes and shoes, then nutrition. Coach Mike and I had been on the phone over 2 evenings going over my nutrition and issues I had had at the 70.3, and Coach Doug had also sent me an email. So I was trying Gatorade, GU, bananas, and some new organic/all natural GU and “shot block” type things from REI (Honey Stinger I think  they were called). I also had my Thermalytes and some Clif Shot margarita blocks. The idea was to stay completely away from protein, and as much as possible away from solid/fiber food.

I hit my timer for the 5 hours as I got in the pool for my first round. The wind was blowing so hard, that it was keening through the flags above the pool. The sound was super eery. The lifeguard was in his canvas “house,” hunkered down, and there were actually some other brave souls out there with me (though I did get my own lane). The rain had died down a bit, but the wind was REALLY serious. It whipped the pool into waves! The water was nice and warm, and I finished the 1,000 in something like 24 minutes (I can’t quite remember now and it wasn’t all that important – I just figured I would keep going until the 5 hours was up).

I got out and headed into the changing room, grabbing a couple of towels on the way. I had worn my 2-piece Tyr top under my 1-piece suit, with the thought of using that straight through as a jogbra (that worked well). As usual, it was a little tough getting the bike shorts on, but once those were on, the heartrate monitor and shirt were easy. I put my baseball cap on my head, as (even though braided) my hair was definitely going to scare folks out on the gym floor! Grabbing a bike bottle full of Gatorade, a couple GU and some Shot Blocks and a banana, I headed out to the bike trainer.

I was to ride 9 miles. I kept within my LT of 153-157 and RPM of 90, which necessitated moving up and down on the gears as my heart rate raised (and lowered). It made it a bit more interesting. I had my iPod and a new music set, and biked for 5 minutes before I took in any of the Gatorade or nutrition. Mike had postulated that one of the issues might have been taking in nutrition too fast after getting out of the swim, so I was careful about that. Then, it was just up to me to sit there and pump out the 9 miles. Just as I was finishing, I lucked out and one of the treadmills came open. I hurried over to it, but one of the Staff beat me to it – apparently something was wrong with it but he said he could “fix it quickly.” I threw my towel over it to make it clear that it was “mine” and then headed into the locker room, realizing that I had made a mistake only bringing one bike bottle. I added the Gatorade to it, and hustled back out, ultimately getting on the treadmill a minute or two later. I walked a little bit at first, but got it up to just shy of 12 MPH. That was fast enough for me. The gym was very crowded, and they had the “30 minutes max” sign up for the treadmills (not on the bikes though). So when I finished 1.5 miles, I was a Bad Grrl – I pressed Stop quickly, reset the machine, then started over! Ohhhh, bad. But at the speed I was going, I wasn’t going to be able to make 3 miles in 30 minutes, and I was going to be “darned” if I had to wait on the treadmill each round!

I got off, and it was time to head back out to the pool. One nice thing was there is a “spinner” in the ladies room, so my suit was only damp, not really wet. (I actually had brought 3 suits, just in case. Yes, I am SUCH a Princess :-) ) I had been in the training room (no windows) for the bike/run portion, and as I finished the run, my timing was such that I thought I would get 2 rounds plus maybe one swim in. (I can’t remember the time, but I remember thinking that.)

I turned the corner towards the pool and actually laughed out loud. The rain was coming down so hard, I couldn’t even SEE the pool. It looked as if I was literally looking at a waterfall. I shook my head, and headed on out there. Big surprise – I was the only one in the pool! The lifeguard raised an eyebrow at me from the guard shack, snuggled down in his big pool parka and hood. Yeah – I’m crazy, I know.

The water was markedly colder, and was actually sloshing over the edge of the pool. It was a little hard to breathe with the rain coming down so hard, and it felt odd on my shoulders and arms – super cold “pellets” pinging me for the entire time I was swimming. I did my 1,000, and hoisted myself out – and couldn’t see my flipflops (which I had kicked off at the head of my lane). They are bright pink, so pretty easy to spot – I scanned the pool deck and realized that they had washed all the way down the “short” side of the pool and 1/2 way around the “long” side!

I got out, and headed back in for Round 2. I actually felt really good, though the Gatorade was getting less and less appetizing (SO darned sweet!) I actually had to do a tiny bit more than 9 miles on the bike, as no treadmill was free when I reached the 9. I did my same “trick” with the 1.5 miles/1.5 miles on the treadmill the 2nd time, but I actually was able to go a bit faster. When I looked at my watch, I realized I had a LOT more time left over – I had “negative split” all the sports on my 2nd time around – !

I got off the treadmill, suited up for my last time, and headed back out to the pool. I had forgotten to take off my heart rate monitor – so I did discover the answer to one of the questions I have had (whether it is waterproof – yes, it is, thank goodness!). I got out to the pool, and the rain had let up a LOT since I had been out the 2nd time. (No way to tell from the gym, as the only windows face out onto the indoor basketball court.) The lifeguard unbundled just long enough to ask what I was doing (surprised, I’m sure, to see me for my THIRD time), and I said I had to do as many sprint-distance triathlons as I could in 5 hours. I mentioned that I was feeling tired, and so was going to go into the lane right in front of the guard shack. To which I got, “Um, you BETTER not have any trouble, I am SO not coming out there to save you!” Thanks – that makes me feel safe!

I got into the water and HOLY CATS was it cold!  It was obvious the heater couldn’t keep up with the volume of cold rainwater. It’s a saline pool, and it was also markedly less “salty” than usual. My first couple of laps, I could feel the goosebumps raising up all over my body. Brrrrrr!!!

While swimming that last set, I had a funny thing happen, with respect to Rand (the owner of Aria Velo, about whom I wrote in the ‘bike fit’ blog post). He and I had discussed the fact that we had had the same swim coach, Deann Joslyn, at Petaluma High morning swim. I used to go to the swim with my friend Lori, before we headed down to work. Neither of us was really good enough to join the Masters, who swam at the same time, so Deann (who coached the Masters and swam, too) gave us our own routine. I was thinking about this, and thinking about the folks in the Masters. Rand had mentioned Patrick (who was assistant coach back then), and I had described him and Rand said no, that wasn’t him – as I was swimming, I realized the guy I was referring to was named Greg. I remembered who Patrick was. Then I started thinking about this cute, tall skinny guy who had started after Lori and I had been swimming “to the side of” The Masters for about 6 months. He had had sort of “punk cut” (long in front) dyed black hair, lots of piercings and tattoos, etc. He was super nice, and actually swam with us in the beginning because he wasn’t much of a swimmer. I remember he often biked to the pool and would then bike after. As I was swimming my 3x Sprint Swim, I thought “Wow, that’s so weird, that guy’s name was Rand, too.” It took me 25 yards to realize – oh my Goodness! – that was RAND! The SAME guy who had fit me at Aria Velo. I laughed out loud (and choked on pool water) when I realized I “must be a little hypoxic” to think that there could be TWO “Rands.” Of course, now that Rand owns Aria Velo, he has short sandy-brown hair, he’s taken out his piercings, and he must still have the tattoos, but he wears sleeves to cover them. I couldn’t believe it! That was probably 2000, maybe 2001…small world!

I got out of the pool and back onto the bike – and was starting to feel a little surly. I didn’t even bring the iPod out…sort of like the 70.3, I was just “tired of” the idea of music. I looked at my watch, and realized that I was going to be able to finish a 3rd time on the bike, and probably about 5-10 minutes of the run – which is exactly what happened (I ran for 5 minutes which put me at the 5 hour cutoff, then turned the treadmill down and walked another 5 to cool down).

I hit the showers, and was in there a long time! The gym had cleared out by that time, so I was able to take my time packing up all the “debris” from the locker (GU containers, Gatorade bottles, etc.). I then sat on the edge of the towel cabinet, and ate an entire “Snack Pack” of Chips Ahoy cookies! All in all, it was a good day – and I was really glad to be “back in the saddle” again.

On Tuesday (yes, I am “blogging backwards”), Coach Mike K, Helen, Mentor Margaret, Iron Melissa, Susie, Lessanjen (you know, like ‘Brangelina’ (smile)), Paula and I did our Lactate Threshold test at my house. It was a LOT of fun to have everyone over, especially on the day that H left for Austria. Doing the test basically involves riding your bike on a trainer until you puke. Well, not QUITE until you puke. But nearly. ;-)

I had been having some issues with the gearing on Angelina when H and I went on the ride during the weekend – slipping out of the lower gears. He had worked on it a bit, and Coach Mike worked on it a bit and looked at my fit in general. But he, and Sedonia, and a number of others had urged me to get a “professional bike fit”…and that was on the books for the next day. After the LT test, I had that nagging ache in my knees that biking – since my USMC knee thing - leads to. I had told Coach Mike that on my ride on Angelina during the weekend (slipping gears aside) I had also had trouble climbing hills that I could climb with Vlad’s granny gear (H, on Vlad, actually went up and down the hill cheering me on…at least I didn’t walk!) Mike said that with a proper bike fit, I should have more power and it might affect both of these issues.

So the next day I was up to Aria Velo in Santa Rosa. Rand Libberton is considered by members of my Team whom I really respect to be one of the top bike fitters anywhere – and the price was 1/3 of what another team member had paid. So though it was still expensive (given my current low low income state), I figured I really HAD to do this.

Eight hours later, I walked out!

Okay, some of it was talking about the whole fitting “thing,” Ironman racing in general and the like. (Moi? Get someone talking? (smile).) Rand had been a TNT Cycle/Iron coach in the past and has 5 Ironmans (Ironmen?) under his belt and is doing IM Canada this year – so there was a lot to talk about. My favorite story actually had to do with when he decided to move from being an ultradistance cyclist to doing his first Ironman because a 56 year old family friend from his home town in North Carolina was doing IM Florida. I was in stitches when he explained the training regime he concocted for himself…which included the story of his first run. After he’d sent in the $ for the IM, he went out, bought some running shoes, and then figured (since he could cycle for hours and hours), that he’d go out “for just an hour,” on his first run. He wound up giving himself, all at once, the top 4 running injuries, including plantar fasciitis and shin splints!! (Then, in his first Swim – which he did under the auspices of my old swim coach DeAnn Joslin in Petaluma, small world! – he thought he’d “just swim for an hour”…and wound up getting 1/2 lap before he started to drown and gasp! :-) )

“Fitting” includes having all your “measurements measured” – from your shoulders, arms, hamstring flexion, hip and ankle flexibility, where the ball of your foot is, etc….to a special little number that you push down, stand over, and then let slowly rise up until it gooses you to show your “true” inseam! (Wonder if the guys step off this thing singing soprano for a few seconds…?)

Rand measures your bike, and transfers the measurements exactly to a machine that looks sort of like a bike/cyborg combo. Then he puts you on it, and sticks electrodes to your various “moving parts” (ankle, knee, shoulder, hip, etc.) so that he can “motion capture” you riding. The whole time, we were talking about “all things Ironman.” His girlfriend Lydia (who was one of the founding members of Counting Crows) actually also got bitten by the Iron “bug” and not only got into Kona the first time that she entered the raffle, but also had an AMAZING moment on the Ironman video that year! (He played it for me.) We talked a LOT about nutrition, and I recounted my ‘issue’ with the 70.3 and he had some ideas on what to potentially do to address it. Pedal, pedal, pedal. Compute, compute, compute. Chat, chat, chat.

The motion capture not only shows you in all your glory and where you should be straight instead of bent and vice versa (oy), but also it tracks where in your pedal stroke you are gaining (or losing) power. It was fascinating. Rand then shows you (off the bike, in chairs) WHY your power gets messed up if you are not in the right position. The one that really stuck with me is this: Sit in a chair, feet on the floor, sitting up straight. Now, stand up. When you go to stand up, you lean forward an exact angle (everyone does – I forget the angle but it’s specific). Your body “just does this” to engage all the best muscles to give you the power. If you lean forward farther than that angle, you don’t engage the muscles correctly (though you can do it, just not as efficiently). And if you lean BACK away from that angle and try to get up, you can’t even really engage those muscles at all (imagine trying to stand up from a “slumped back” position without leaning forward – impossible).

As Rand explained it, the fit on my bike as I brought her into the shop was more like that “leaning back” position. I had asked him in particular why I felt most comfortable riding in the drops – though all Cycling books and magazines detail that you should spend about 80% of your time on the hoods. He said that by getting down in the drops, I was trying to “get down to” the angle that would help me produce that power…up in the hoods, the “angle made” by my body in relation to my legs was more like that “lean back position” in the chair and my body just couldn’t sustain that for very long.

And then, he started to change the geometry. Everything. From where my cleats were on my shoes, on up. Hooooooly cow! The motion capture from the beginning to the end went from me with a bowed back, straight arms out of my shoulder sockets (and widely spread hands due to the “extra width” handlebar) and my knees (at the “up”/bent position) well below the bar, to a straight back, relaxedly (is that a word?) bent elbows, shoulders down, and my knee actually ABOVE the bar while pedaling. The only ‘change’ that cost me extra were the new handlebars (and they were only $40) – he threw in the new stem -and he even took all the stickers off the bike and the ‘pie plate’ behind the gears gratis so I “wouldn’t look stupid” (no mincing words there). Everything changed. Every-freakin’-thing. I guess the biggest one was that the seat went up -  nearly THREE inches. (He said it in centimeters, which sounded even bigger, of course.) I got up on the bike and started laughing and making “altitude sickness” comments! I haven’t actually been out on a ride with her yet – I don’t want to go alone – and I had ALREADY, before, been having trouble catching the tip of the saddle on the “pad” on the back of my bike shorts when I got going. I can’t even IMAGINE how I’m going to ‘get up there’ now!

Speaking of saddles, Rand said that my saddle is “OK for now,” though he had a number of woman-fit saddles for me to look at. My saddle on Vlad was rubbing me because it was too “flared” in back. Angelina’s new Fizik saddle is WAY harder, but it’s narrower and the shape seems good – so I’m going to see how it goes.

Aria Velo even has a room called “The Lab” with a trainer that you put your bike on, where you can queue up any race you want (including of course Ironman Louisville) from a biker’s perspective and ride it. The trainer simulates the hills, etc. Even the water stops and special needs stops are on the film! I definitely plan to take advantage of that.

I think my favorite times in the whole experience were when he said I had “professional cyclist level” knee/hip side-to-side movement (I had pretty much none, which he said is basically unheard of for a complete non-cyclist like moi, or even for most “real” cyclists). And also when he showed me how to affect my pedal/power stroke on the computer screen attached to my movement. I got very competitive on that one! He said that people generally stay under 50 or so (I think that was the number). I could get it up to 73. (He said that he can get it to 80 for a few counts). Yes, yes, I might not have the most expensive bike in the world, and I might not be the best cyclist in the world, but I have “world class” knee/hip (non-)movement and can “get the numbers” on the pedal/power machine. Who-hoo (laugh!) The thing that I learned and could dramatically SEE was that if you can get your RPM to hold at 90, your pedal stroke loses some of the “loss of power” points at just about 1:00 (on the clock of your pedal stroke) and 5:00 that it has when you pedal at a slower rate. Also, because you could see each foot’s power separately, it was very easy to see that you really only get power when you are on the “front side” of the circle, not on the “back side,” regardless of how many exercises you do to “pull up” on the stroke or imagine having “equal power” all the way around. Pedalling is all about the foot that is on the “forward side of the circle” pushing “out” not “stomping down”, and then “riding back up” when the other foot is doing the front side of the circle. Rand had me do an exercise where I tried to “relax” my foot and ankle (reminded me a lot about what I learned in the Chi Running seminar) and just keep the RPM up without “pushing down” but rather, by pushing “forward,” then riding the pedal around. That’s when I got the highest numbers and the flattest “power loss” profile. I explained to Rand that I found 80 RPM to be a good “sweet spot” for me – he said I really had to try to keep it in a lower gear and up at that 90 RPM as much as I could. He said he knew that, once I got used to it, the new geometry was going to help a lot.

Rand asked me how I had set up Angelina in the first place – and I explained that H had pretty much tried to match the geometry on Vlad - which had been matched to geometry from my bike before, and so on, and so on. And, of course, NO, I had never been “professionally fit” on ”Bike Zero,” the bike that had started it all. Rand said that, given that my hip/knee movement were at “such a rock solid level,” he was pretty much 100% sure that all my knee issues on the bike were from the ’completely idiotic geometry and positioning’ I had ridden with for so many years. (No mincing words there.)

After he realized that I could take his Love Through Sarcasm brand of coaching, Rand convinced me into replacing not only my under-saddle tool/tube case (“If you’re carrying that suitcase to put your jacket in it, suck it up and put it in your jersey back pocket like the rest of us”), but also my pump/CO2 combo (“Can you pump anything up using that? I didn’t think so. So why are you carrying it?”) When I explained that I was terrified of “doing a Chrissie Wellington” with a CO2 cartridge if I had to fill a tube since I’d never used one, he actually took the air out of my tire and made me fill it not once, but twice. (The Ironman DVD that we had watched with his girlfriend on it was the one where Wellington got a flat, then didn’t fit the CO2 cartridge on  correctly and had to go begging for one from a fellow competitor.) He threw those in, for free, an extra tube, some “non-idiotic tire levers” to replace mine, etc. Pity is a wonderful thing.

The thing that I was sad about was that my IM Louisville-training friend Missy couldn’t fly out to have her bike fit, too! She is a cycle “nut” (said with love) and Aria Velo would be an “ice-cream-with-whipped-cream-and-fudge-sundae-cherry-on-top” experience for her. She has been tinkering on her own with the fit of her tri bike, her road bike, and her mountain bike and I know that if she could bring her “rides” to Rand, she would be totally set.

So, there ya go – that’s my bike fit story. I gotta get on Angelina this week, and see how it goes! The geometry is so different, it’s almost like I got a new bike!

I’m having a lot of fun and other folks are great being “game” and sending these! I wonder if I should make up a Tshirt in the end, with all of these on the back??

YOU KNOW YOU’RE IRON WHEN…

…you wear your tri shorts under your church clothes so you can go directly to an open water swim after Easter service. (Coach Dan Russell)

…you show up to a dinner party in bike shorts and don’t care. And you know your friends are iron, when half of them are in bike shorts too. (Coach Helen)

…you say screw it and drive home in your cycling shoes after spin. :-) (Kathryn)

…when you seriously contemplate wearing your spin clothes under your work attire for faster transition times between work and workout….hahaha!!!  FYI…bike shorts under khakis…no go…but tri shorts under pencil skirt…ok! Thank GAWD I wear a lab coat (Coach Sedonia)

Well, as I’m treating this as the History of Transformation from Couch Potato to Iron Woman, I guess it’s time to talk about the “bad” as well as the “good.”

Since coming back from Sedona, I’ve had a serious case of malaise. I’ve swum a couple of times, H and I did a 36 mile bike ride (me on Angelina – yay!), and I did the Lactate Threshold test, but I’ve let myself fall away from training. It’s time to get “recommitted” to it.

I think that part of this has to do with doing the 70.3 (1/2 Iron). That was far and away the longest and hardest athletic endeavor that I have ever done. I think that doing that . . . and the trouble I had at the end . . . has weakened my “resolve.” I have also been having a lot of trouble caused by the uterine tumor. STOP READING IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH SKIP ON TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH…I am having severe bleeding and have for 2 weeks. The doctor said that this is just going to happen, until the tumor is addressed, which I have said I don’t want to do until after the Ironman. I am taking an iron supplement at her direction (Floradix Floravital), but I’ve got to believe that some of this malaise has got to do with the exhaustion of that situation, too.

I wound up coming away from the bike ride with H on Angelina with a GOOD shin splint – by 2 days after (Monday) I was limping badly and wound up going to the doctor ultimately because of it. She said that it was likely from kicking out of the clipless pedals…! She said that I really should stay off it until the inflammation had gone down, and especially that I should watch biking/running this weekend if I did indeed go to Boot Camp. Her feeling (likely true!) was that I would get “competitive” and go faster than I normally would if alone. As such, she said she’d “rather I not” bike/run until Monday (alone!)

So from the start today, I knew I would only be doing the Open Water Swim, and then I was going to (wo)man the Run water stop for the rest of the Team.

I have been sleeping TERRIBLY since H left for Austria. We are SO seldom apart, and generally if we are apart it is because I am on business travel, not that I am home and he is away. For whatever reason, I have no trouble sleeping in a hotel room – but when at home alone, I juuuuust baaaaarely sleep, with any twitch or sound waking me up. I feel as if I am in a state of “hypervigilance.” This morning, I had slept about 2-3 hours, as has happened for the past week since he left.

Herbert’s mother died unexpectedly when we were in Sedona. Oh – sure – she was “old” (93), but she wasn’t sick…it obviously was “bound to happen some time” (we all gotta go!) but it was a shock. I just adored her and she adored me. In fact, though H had been married (and engaged) a few times before, I was the first one she gave him the family heirloom engagement ring for…he said she told him “If you don’t ask her to marry you, I will.” Not quite sure what will happen with H’s dad (who is 97), especially as H is an only child…

This morning when I got up and turned on my phone, I had a text from not only Iron Melissa, but also from Patricia – both of whom I was bringing to Boot Camp. Melissa was having G.I. distress, and Patricia had a blinding migraine – so neither of them was going to go. I thought a bit…had some oatmeal, and realized that what I REALLY should do was go back to sleep. (It had been 2 days since I could even get my contacts in, my eyes were so tired – I was contemplating that when the texts came in.) Then I got a text from Melissa that said “I’m in Kaiser ER.”

Well, that did it – first I texted back to let me know if she needed anything, but that didn’t make me feel like a good friend. So I texted back I was going to go there – and I got dressed and got in the car. No Boot Camp.

I actually missed Melissa at the ER – just as I was walking in the door, I got a text from her that she was back home. (Ah, timing…) She said she was OK, didn’t need me to get her any groceries, etc. – and so I headed back home. I was already dressed and figured I could just head out to Boot Camp and S.A.G. – but my subconscious kept saying “GO TO SLEEP.”

I was back in bed by like 7:00 a.m. … “You Know You’re Iron When” you’re getting back in bed…after eating, contemplating, Facebook’ing, heading out to the hospital and back…before most folks are even up the FIRST time!

I didn’t get up until 1:30 p.m.! I was seriously dead to the world. By the time I got up, it was drizzling. I have been trying to convince myself to get to the pool, or get on the bike for a quick ride, or something. I just “don’t wanna.” That’s so wrong.

Patricia and I (if she is over the migraine) plan to get together tomorrow, though it’s supposed to be Noah’s Ark-style raining. I proposed that we go to the JCC and “do” what the team did today – seriatim minitriathlons (1,000 yard swim, 9 mile bike, 3 mile run over 5 hours) – inside. I hope I have the resolve to do this anyway, even if Patricia still isn’t feeling up to it.